Hoops Habit
Fansided

Top 5 Scorers Who Are Hurting Their Teams

By Adrian Lawhorn

Mar 19, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan (10) controls the ball as Indiana Pacers guard Jeff Teague (44) defends during the third quarter in a game at Air Canada Centre. The Toronto Raptors won 116-91. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 19, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan (10) controls the ball as Indiana Pacers guard Jeff Teague (44) defends during the third quarter in a game at Air Canada Centre. The Toronto Raptors won 116-91. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 6
Next
Jan 28, 2017; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Zach LaVine (8) dribbles in the first quarter against the Brooklyn Nets guard Sean Kilpatrick (6) at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 28, 2017; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Zach LaVine (8) dribbles in the first quarter against the Brooklyn Nets guard Sean Kilpatrick (6) at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports /

5. Zach LaVine, Minnesota Timberwolves

Points Per Game: 18.9, On Court/Off Court: -7.4

Two-time NBA Slam Dunk Champion Zach LaVine has made a lot of highlight reels during his career, and he’s also now become a consistently productive scorer in the NBA. However, his net plus-minus of minus-7.4 is very poor.

One of the reasons for this counter-intuitive result is LaVine’s performance on the defensive end of the floor. Per ESPN’s NBA Real Plus-Minus stats, LaVine is ranked as the 88th-best defensive player at his position — out of 89 total players.

LaVine has been out for the season since early February with a torn ACL, but he played in 47 games prior to the injury, so we have a large enough sample size for his statistics to have meaning.

The Timberwolves have played without LaVine for about seven weeks and they have settled in and performed better than they did when Zach LaVine was active.

It is one thing for a team to rally and pick up the slack for a short period of time when one of their top players goes down, but Minnesota has been successfully doing that since prior to the NBA All-Star break. Bottom line: the Wolves have been a more productive unit without LaVine this season.